Up-close Tanzania Photographic Wildlife Encounters and Epic Landscapes

Tanzania is a photographer’s dream. And whether you specialize in capturing wildlife, landscapes, night skies or people and culture, we’ll help you get the best out of your trip and plan a safari to maximize photographic opportunities.Almost any trip to Tanzania  will be photogenic, but for the real enthusiasts, we can arrange private vehicles, celebrated photographer guides and lodges renowned for up-close encounters with relaxed wildlife. For completely different perspectives, scenic helicopter and hot air balloon flights make for epic aerial shots or stay at camps with their very own photographic hides to stake out and let the animals come to you. We can also suggest the best times of year to go, whether to escape the crowds or for awe-inspiring seasonal events.

If you have a ‘dream’ shot in mind – a cheetah mid-sprint, Sossusvlei at sunrise, dramatic river crossings during the wildebeest migration or portraits of mountain gorillas – get in touch to chat to one of the keen photographers on our team to start planning a safari that will place you when and where you need to be.

Tanzania offers some spectacular locations and wildlife for photography holidays in Africa, even if it’s not always easy to get the perfect photo! Photographers often come to Tanzania with the wildlife in mind – and for that the most famous locations are in the north: the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater. Here keen photographers will usually request one of our private 4WD vehicles and guides, for maximum flexibility in setting their own schedules.

The Serengeti is one of Africa’s most captivating safari areas and the annual migration circular migration of wildebeest, along with zebra, Grant’s gazelle, Thomson’s gazelle, eland and impala attracts many photographers in the area. For keen photographers, like other keen wildlife-watchers, will want to understand how the herds are likely to move over the year; see our comments and moving map of where to see the Serengeti wildebeest migration for the full story. A photography holiday in Tanzania’s north can easily include visits to the Maasai people, who live mostly in the northern Tanzania. In at least one location in the Serengeti you can also visit some well-preserved rock paintings of animals, shields and other traditional military regalia. Note that although the Maasai are usually happy to be photographed, most will ask visitors for a fee for this.

Photogenic people and wildlife are not the only aspects of a visit to attract photographers to northern Tanzania. Here the topography is varied – from grassy plains, open woodland, imposing mountains and forests to networks of channels, lakes and swamps. The dramatic scenery of the Great Rift Valley – rolling volcanic hills, deep craters and groves of skeletal baobabs – is amazing for a photography holiday. As an alternative to the north,western,eastern,beach and southern Tanzania‘s scenery is gentler. Here it’s less common to hire a private vehicle with a guide, and more common to stay at a camp which organizes your activities. So you won’t usually have the flexibility of your own vehicle – but you are more likely to have an open-sided and sometimes even open-topped vehicle, which can really help with individual photographs.